By Dan Wolpert, pastor, First Presbyterian Church in Crookston
Posted May. 7, 2013 at 1:02 PM
Updated May 7, 2013 at 1:04 PM

Crookston

The Minnesota Institute of Contemplation and Healing has released its third MICAH Book, “The Collapse of the Three Story Universe: Christianity in an Age of Science.” This follows the publication of two volumes of Holy Doodle books. This new book is by Daniel Wolpert and it's his fourth book. It is available for review and can be obtained through Amazon, or directly from MICAH (micahprays.org).

The purpose of this book is to try and present a series of images that will allow us to understand how it is indeed possible for an invisible being, God, to be part of our material reality, the universe, in an manner that is both significant and consistent with what we currently understand about that reality.

This work is organized along theological lines, using theological categories from the Christian faith as a framework on which to paint this new image. This exploration also relies oncontemplative practice and teachings as a method for examining reality, as the spiritual tradition will help us see all things new.

Such a discussion will be useful on several fronts.

One is for the person of faith inside the church who may, consciously or unconsciously, beanxious about discussing a faith built upon a model of reality, the Three-Story Universe, they know to be false. I believe that if this person had another more consistent model or image to draw from that they would be more confident about being a person of faith in the modern world.

Hopefully this work will also be of help to the thousands of people who have left the church precisely because they can no longer deal with a faith based upon an image of material reality that is untrue. Perhaps if they had an image of faith and reality that was more consistent they would be able to reconnect with their faith lives in a more meaningful way.

Finally, I hope that this work will be useful in interfaith dialogue. People of different faiths continue to kill one another by the thousands often because of differences in doctrine and dogma. But what if the images of our faith began to derive from the common image of the universe that we all, wether we are willing to admit it or not, share? Perhaps we could begin to relate to each other from a stance and posture that was more peaceful.